"Life is so short, so beautiful. Don’t be so serious about work. Enjoy life.” — Jack Ma
Before confirming the ticket to Phu Quoc I had double checked with the GSA of Vietjet in Ahmedabad, Bird Travels, that I did not require a visa to visit Phu Quoc for tourism for up to 30 days. The visa exemption is available to the following two category of passengers:
1. Those who fly directly into Phu Quoc international airport and clear immigration there.
2. Those who transit via a Vietnam mainland airport and the transit to Phu Quoc is within 24 hours.
At the check-in counter in Ahmedabad, I was told that the ticket must be on the same PNR for the up and down journeys. That made it the third condition for visa free admittance to Phu Quoc.
I was also informed in Ahmedabad that I would be met by a person from the transfer desk at the Ho Chi Minh City (HOMC) international airport who would take my baggage for re-check-in. I was specifically told that immigration would be in Phu Quoc. The flight from Ahmedabad was 45 minutes late getting into HOMC; that didn't bother me as I still had over 4 hours between flights. However, the process of transfer desk, immigration and domestic airport transfer and baggage check-in consumed nearly two and half hours.
The biggest disappointment was the immigration which was slow and too few counters to handle the throughput of passengers. At the immigration I got the shock of my life when the officer demanded Vietnam visa. I showed her the boarding pass given by the transfer desk, which didn't convince her. She kept on repeating her demand and I kept on pointing to the boarding pass. Finally, she confirmed from a couple of her colleagues that I did not require a Vietnam visa.
It was indeed shocking that the officer was unaware of the transit to a visa free destination in her own country. Once that ordeal was over, I walked to the domestic terminal and joined a humongous queue to drop my checking bag. Many Indian tour groups were already there for the same purpose. And, with our proclivity to create chaos out of an orderly system, the queues moved slowly. People trying to cut queues, leaving trolleys where they should not be left, removing tags when they shouldn't have, and the like ensured that the queues moved ever so slowly.
Finally, I completed security and got to the gate to be told that the flight to Phu Quoc is an hour behind schedule! Even though I slowly sipped a cappuccino and ate a couple of chunks of cake, in about an hour my nostrils picked up appetizing scents from a restaurant near the gate. I was drawn to it like a moth to the flame. After thoroughly apprising the menu I settled for the Vietnamese national dish, Pho. It is a noodle soup dish with pepper spiced broth, meat and herbs. I chose beef, having opted for a 1 meat Pho meal. There was a 2-meat option too, in which you could add chicken in it too. The fare was filling and soothed my throat.
In time the gate for the Phu Quoc flight was changed and boarding began. In the bus transfer to the aircraft a couple of Indian women almost 'snatched' a one-year-old girl from her Singaporean parents. While the parents had resisted all attempts, they finally had to give way. Indians are Indians and Indian women and their 'mamta' are ever present with others' children. The infant soon let out a bawl and the 'mamta' handed the child back to her parents, who apologetically said that the child had got scared. Quite natural, one would have thought, to be 'snatched' and cuddled by strangers.
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